[chico20854]

October 14, 1997

The 2nd and 3rd Brigades, 82nd Airborne Division parachute into the Tabriz area airheads established by the rest of the division as Transcaucasian Front reels from the massive disruption to its supply lines.

Open warfare erupts in Northern Ireland. With no regular army units available, the brunt of the battle on the British side falls upon the police and the Ulster Defense Regiment. Both forces are composed primarily of Protestants, and as a result, they tend to concentrate on the Catholic terrorists - the IRA and the INLA. Protestants and Catholics begin fighting in the streets of Belfast and Londonderry (as it is labeled on the British maps - Catholic Irish prefer to call the city Derry), and many Catholics are killed or forced out. In the border counties of Fermanagh and Armagh, the Catholics seize control, backed by the IRA, and call for military aid from Eire to overthrow the Protestant government.

Rotterdam is struck by Soviet nuclear warheads. (Unofficially) The strikes ignite the oil refinery and sets chemical plants on fire (for the second time in less than a year) and sinks dozens of ships in the port, NATO's busiest. (Officially) The city's security force, the 304th Infantry Brigade, is largely destroyed by the attack, and only scattered survivors escape the firestorm and subsequent chaos.

Unofficially,

The light frigate USS Pettit is delivered in Marinette, Wisconsin and manned by USCG personnel. The tanker Elokomin is delivered in Baltimore and placed in naval service.

With a quick stop at the ROK Navy's ammunition pier, the USS Des Moines returns to sea in the Sea of Japan. Once out of Korean waters, helicopters from the ammunition ship USS Pyro land on the cruiser's stern and a work party unload a half-dozen 12-kt W33 tactical nuclear rounds for the ship's main guns.

The 107th Cavalry Regiment's fighting withdrawal is sped along by the capture of a column of trucks from the rear area of the Soviet 1st Shock Army. The fuel bowsers are used to keep a relay of the cargo trucks going, transporting the trailing cavalry troops to the lead and then returning for more.

The first Soviet ASW group (from Ostrovnoy) arrives in the vicinity of the USS Olympia and begins hunting her, using active sonar to drive the American boat towards a new minefield.

The Pact renews its attacks on the Turkish defensive positions west of Istanbul. The initial attacks come from two divisions of Bulgarian Construction Troops, paramilitary formations composed of Gypsies, ethnic Turks and those judged too politically unreliable for military service, supported by Soviet assault guns of the 367th Guards Assault Gun Brigade (who have a secondary mission to machinegun the Bulgarians if any are to try to flee the battlefield). The assault is met with furious Turkish resistance, and it fails entirely after US Air Force F-16s of the 363rd Tactical Fighter Wing arrive overhead, hitting the supporting artillery batteries with four 60-kiloton B-61 tactical nuclear bombs.

The repair of the damaged tanker Starlight Gigant in Dubai is completed, freeing up the drydock it occupies, the only one in the region capable of holding the USS Independence.